La Gran Adventura: Day 13-15

Day 12 found us rolling into Antigua in the central highlands of Guatremala. Antigua is now a popular tourist destination and contains a sizable ex-pat population both from the US and Europe. The city has well-preserved Spanish Baroque influenced architecture and three volcanoes are visible from the city. Antigua has numerous language schools (including one the Bethel operates) and this location serves as a jumping off point for trips to Atitlan Lake and other areas. - Jay

This is a shot of the famous Arco de Santa Catalina. Nina (daughter) and I visited this city several years ago and not much has changed. - Jay

El Merced - a popular shopping area. - Jay

La Merced Church, another famous landmark. - Jay

This was our home for the night - the Casa Cristina (recommend by the way). I managed to drop my bike on the sidewalk while trying to unload. - Jay

Our hotel for the night had a rooftop garden that gave us views of the whole city. - Conor

Just enjoying some strong morning coffee. I'm slowly getting used to this morning wake up thing but it's still kinda rough. - Conor

To compensate for the lack of Diet Mountain Dew (his drink of choice) Jay has taken to a slight coffee habit as we have progressed on the trip. - Conor

Guatemala was amazing! The people, the mountains, the rooftop views, the chicken, the coffee. I'm sad to leave, but I know I'll come back soon. - Conor

Day 13 El Salvador. - Jay

Lago de Coatapeque, El Salvador. This is a large volcanic crater lake with crystal clear waters. The lake is 10 about 10 square miles and is one of the largest lakes in El Salvador. In the center of the lake is the island of Teopan, which was a Mayan site of some importance. - Jay

We got fairly lost trying to find our hostel on Lago de Coatapeque but we managed to find this bar with a hotel attached to it instead on the Lake. So I guess everything turned out well. - Conor

Especially when this view was everywhere. - Conor

This hut is where we ate our meals for the day. Being from Minnesota, it takes me a lot to be impressed with lakes, but this crater lake was truly beautiful and some of the clearest water that I have ever seen. - Conor

Volcanic rock doesn't make for great beaches so this unusual structure worked well as a swimming pool. - Jay

Enjoy some lake views from some elevation. -Jay

This is the structure where we spent the night. -Jay

Master mapper Jay Rasmussen, back to the grind trying to figure out the day's route. This usually consisted of variations of the PanAmericana Highway which is considered the world's longest motorable road (Alaska to Argentina). The only break in the road is a 99 mile stretch through the Darrien Gap where no navigable roads exist. We'll take a sailboat around this stretch. - Conor

Day 14 to Choluteca, Honduras - Jay

Traveling with two motos has proven to make border crossings interesting. Leaving and entering countries tends to take about two hours total, with Mexico being the longest with a three hour crossing.- Conor

Border crossings are a daily adventure, one that involves a plethora of paperwork. Commonly we need passports, copies of the passport, titles for the bike, copies of the title, driver's license, copies of the driver's license, the documents saying we were in the previous country with all the right paper work and a small fee. Once the customs officials see that we are okay this person goes to look at the bikes and make sure all the V.I.N's are correct and the plates and colors are correct as well. At some point we need to go to immigration (this is customs) and get stamped on our passports that we entered the country. Then we are handed the paperwork saying we can enter the country, which we show to some border patrol about 1 minute down the road. We are then home free. Most of the time this is done outside but this guy was nice enough to let us come in to enjoy a rare border treat of air conditioning.- Conor

This place is where Jay ate some bad food. So, if you're ever traveling through the Honduran mountains avoid this place. And if you have to eat here get the fried chicken that was not too bad.-Conor

Photo taken by Conor Rasmusen.-Conor

These sweet little girls had a momma that served me some bad chilaquiles (corn chips with salsa and chicken pieces). I'm sure she didn't know the food was bad but I spent the night throwing up and other assorted activities I'll spare you of. -Jay

A crazy road brought us to this amazing place in the remote mountains of Honduras. When I say "crazy" please picture yourself cruising around a corner at about 50 mph and half of the road (your lane) is just missing. There are about three rocks on the road as a warning and then you see a hole big enough to hold two cars. While this isn't completely common it's not totally unusual. In El Salvador, Honduras, and Nicaragua it's common to mark road problems with a stick (with paper bag on it) or a few rocks in the road.

After getting lost for a couple hours in a Nicaraguan rainstorm we ended up here. A place called Selva Negra which is the largest Eco-tourism destination in Central and perhaps all of Latin America.-Conor

These are the cabanas we stayed at, ours was the second from the end on the left. -Conor

Some slightly larger cabanas. - Jay

This was a chapel that was absolutely gorgeous, all original stone work with a bell tower of course. Hopefully I'll be back here to get married some day.-Conor

Enjoy the sights around the Selva Negro Mountain Resort - major thumbs up from us. - Jay

The whole area features sustainable organic farming and over 400 acres of protected virgin forest. They also operate a Rainforest Alliance certified coffee farm that has been operating since 1890. - Jay

While we were at Selva Negra we met an American named Jon who came from North Carolina. He and his team came to complete a project and to study sustainable Eco-Tourism. These were some of the solar panels that he and his team put up to help generate hot water. -Conor

This was the inside of the lodge. German couple at the turn of the 20th century bought the land and with a trackless train brought all the materials up to this area almost two hundred miles from the capital city of Managua.-Conor

This was on a wall in Selva Negra and talks about translations between Spanish and the original language that was spoken in the region which I believe was called Matagalpan. Super cool piece of history that they preserved. -Conor

A map showing the home areas of the various people groups before the time of the conquest. -Jay

Our first problems with a bike yet. A mechanic (and his helper) came by moto from about 30 minutes away and performed various highly technical feats such as tapping on the carburetor. After about 1.5 hours our problems were solved. We're still not sure what the exact problem was but we're pretty certain it was related to a water crossing the night before that was up to our pegs. We've decided to not shut down the bikes when in heavy rain/water situations until the bikes are dried off. Cost for the trip and work? $25 USD. - Jay